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This Villain was Headlined on December, 2018. | ||
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| “ | Crowbars up! | „ |
| ~ Harry to Marv before their robberies. |
| “ | Merry Christmas, little fella. We know that you're in there, and that you're all alone. | „ |
| ~ Harry to Kevin McCallister. |
| “ | Yeah, Come on, kid. Open up. It's Santy Claus… and his elf! | „ |
| ~ Marv to Kevin. |
Harold "Harry" Lyme and Marvin "Marv" Murchins, also known as the Wet Bandits, and later the Sticky Bandits, or simply known as Harry and Marv, are the main antagonists of the 1990 Christmas comedy film Home Alone and its 1992 sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Marv later returns as one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside his wife, Vera) of Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House.
They are a duo of incompetent burglars who target rich and renovated houses, and later a toy store called Duncan's Toy Chest. They are the archenemies of Kevin McCallister.
Harry was portrayed by Joe Pesci, who also portrayed Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, Nicky Santoro in Casino, and Russell Bufalino in The Irishman.
Marv was portrayed by Daniel Stern in the first two films and by French Stewart in the fourth film.
Quick Answers
What are the nicknames of Harry and Marv in the Home Alone franchise?
What is the main target of the Wet Bandits in the Home Alone series?
Why are Harry and Marv known as the Wet Bandits in Home Alone?
What other roles has Joe Pesci, the actor who played Harry, portrayed?
Personality[]
Together, Harry and Marv are rather greedy. They rob for money. However, they are also quite dimwitted and naive. Throughout both films, they heavily underestimate Kevin McCallister, who they see as nothing but a helpless child who is not capable of doing anything, but they are proven wrong both times after falling victim to his many traps. Despite their incompetence, they display ferocious determination in their pursuit of Kevin and prove to be rather dangerous when he is at their mercy, intending to torture him in the first film and outright attempting to murder him in the second.
Individually, despite how bumbling both bandits are overall, Harry is the brains of their team, as he plans out their schemes. While he can be calm when the situation calls for it, he has quite a short temper. Although he prefers to talk his way out of situations, he has no problem resorting to violence if he finds it necessary or gets angry enough. Even though he and Marv are friends and get along with each other, he often gets annoyed by the latter's stupidity, especially when he gives the police information regarding their crimes.
As a burglar, Harry is more professional than Marv. He arranges the thefts, cases the joints, and has the say on what actions to take. While he attempts to keep more of a low profile and subtle style than Marv, he is not much better than the latter, as he is happy to cause destruction and ham-fistedly grab items as quickly as he can.
On the other hand, Marv serves as the duo's lackey. He is far more dimwitted compared to Harry and rather cowardly. In the first film, while he was initially repulsed at breaking into the McCallister house due to Kevin being in it by himself, he became less sympathetic to the child and just as willing to hurt him as Harry as he ended up bruised and battered from his traps. On one occasion in each film, when the traps get too antagonizing, he even declares that he will kill Kevin.
As a burglar, Marv is rather inelegant, as in the first film, he does not even try to be subtle while stealing items from the houses that he and Harry raid, though he still desires to be "one of the great ones" by flooding the houses to create the duo's name and moniker, but this ultimately leads to their undoing, as it allows the police to identify which houses they have invaded. In the second film, he appears to have developed more finesse, as there are several instances where he smuggles items in public without anyone noticing. Even so, his overall burgling technique has not improved, as during his and Harry's heist of Duncan's Toy Chest, he clumsily grabs armfuls of cash and shoves them into his bag while letting several bills fall out as he does so.
Biography[]
Home Alone[]
Harry and Marv on a wanted poster.
Harry and Marv, nicknamed the "Wet Bandits" by the latter, target a neighborhood of high-quality houses that are left vacant while their inhabitants are on vacation for Christmas. Harry impersonates a police officer to find out which families will be leaving. While robbing the houses, Marv tends to leave the water running and block the sinks, flooding the houses and allowing the real officers to identify all of the houses that they have broken into. Harry is repulsed by this act, calling it "sick" and reminding Marv that they need to keep a low profile, but Marv insists that they need a calling card. However, their main target is the McCallister house, which is referred to by Harry as the "silver tuna".
However, eight-year-old child Kevin McCallister is home alone due to his family having mistakenly left him behind while they went to Paris, France. He manages to prevent Harry and Marv from breaking into the house multiple times, but on Christmas Eve, they finally discover that he is alone and they have been tricked the entire time. Although Marv is slightly hesitant about breaking into a house with only a child in it, Harry still persists with the robbery, claiming that the McCallister house is the sole reason they ended up robbing the neighborhood. Kevin overhears them discussing plans to break into the house that night, and so to defend himself and the house, he rigs it with handmade booby traps. At 9:00 PM, Harry and Marv return to the house and attempt to convince Kevin to let them in via the back door, but after experiencing the first trap that he puts them through in the list below, they split up and separately attempt to enter the house, springing the traps in the process and suffering various injuries, including:
- Kevin shoots Harry in the crotch with a BB gun through the doggy door flap and Marv in the forehead when he peeps his head through the flap.
- Harry slips on the ice-covered steps leading to the front door twice, while Marv does the same on the ones leading to the basement.
- After finally gaining his footing, Marv enters the basement and pulls a light switch, which is attached to an iron that falls down the laundry chute and hits him on the face, leaving a large iron-shaped mark on it.
- After finally managing to climb the steps and reach the front door, Harry places his right hand on the doorknob, which has an electric barbecue starter placed on the side of it, resulting in his hand getting severely burnt, and even though he puts it out in the snow, his hand is left with a scar in the shape of an "M".
- Marv loses his shoes and socks as he climbs the tar-covered steps in the basement, one of which has a nail that he steps on, making him fall back to the floor and scream in pain.
- Harry returns to the back door to enter the house, but as he opens it, a blowtorch lights his head on fire, which he puts out in the snow, melting his hat.
- After finally entering the house, Harry walks into a plastic glue-covered wrap before a fan blows feathers onto him.
- Marv abandons the basement entrance and instead uses a window to enter the house, only to step on several Christmas ornaments made of glass upon entering.
- After rejoining, both of them slip on several Micro Machines placed near the steps.
- As they attempt to pursue Kevin upstairs, they each get smacked in the face by a paint can, one of which knocks out Harry's gold tooth.
- As they pursue Kevin upstairs, Harry trips over a wire and falls unconscious, while Marv manages to dodge it and grab Kevin's leg, but Kevin spots his brother Buzz's pet spider, which he places on Marv's face, making him scream in horror, release Kevin, and throw it onto Harry. Marv then attempts to kill the spider with his crowbar, only for it to crawl away at the last second, causing him to instead hit Harry in the chest by accident, angering the latter and making him hit Marv in the arm with the crowbar.
- As they attempt to cross a rope connected from the attic to Kevin's tree house, Kevin cuts the rope, causing them to fall to the ground and hit the side of the house.
Eventually, Harry and Marv manage to ambush and capture Kevin in one of the neighboring houses that they have previously broken into and decide to harm him via the traps that they have been put through once Harry bites off each of Kevin's fingers one by one, but Kevin's elderly next-door neighbor, Old Man Marley, intervenes and knocks them out with his snow shovel. Shortly after Marley returns Kevin home, the police, who have been contacted by Kevin earlier, arrive and arrest Harry and Marv. As the bandits are driven away, Harry glares at Kevin through his window.
When Kevin's immediate family returns home the next day, he does not tell them about his encounter with Harry and Marv. However, his father, Peter, finds Harry's knocked-out gold tooth, leaving him confused.
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York[]
| “ | I never made it to the 6th grade, kid, and it doesn't look like you're gonna either. | „ |
| ~ Harry preparing to shoot Kevin |
One year after the events of the first film, Harry and Marv break out of a Chicago prison during a riot and make their way to New York City on a fish truck. After Marv changes their name to the "Sticky Bandits", they begin seeking a new target to rob, after which they plan to acquire fake passports and flee the United States.
Harry and Marv having captured Kevin.
As fate would have it, Kevin has also made his way to New York as a result of accidentally boarded the wrong flight while the rest of his family have gone to Florida for Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, Harry and Marv decide to rob Duncan's Toy Chest, a successful toy store that intends to donate all of its earnings to a children's hospital. Making it to the store, they plan out the robbery. They then leave to kill some time, when Harry finally spots Kevin. He and Marv pursue the child to exact revenge for their previous encounter, but Kevin manages to trip them with pearls from a necklace, allowing him to escape. He flees to the Plaza Hotel, where he is caught by the staff for using a stolen credit card, forcing him to run. Upon exiting the hotel, he is captured by Harry and Marv, who reveal their plan. Kevin slips away again and flees into Central Park, but the bandits refrain from chasing after him, as they come to the conclusion that he will not be able to survive the park by himself.
Harry and Marv later return to the store and hide until the all of the staff and customers have left, after which they begin their robbery. During the heist, Kevin arrives and photographs them robbing the store before throwing a brick at the store's window, breaking it and triggering the store's alarm in the process. Enraged, the bandits pursue Kevin to his uncle Rob's townhouse, where they fall victim to the booby traps that he has rigged throughout the house, suffering numerous injuries.
- As run out of the store to catch Kevin, Harry jumps on one end of Kevin's handmade seesaw before Marv jumps on the other, catapulting Harry into the air and onto a nearby car.
- Upon reaching the townhouse, Harry attempts to convince Kevin to throw down his camera so that he can erase the evidence against him and Marv, but instead, Kevin throws four bricks at Marv, which hit him in the head.
- As Marv attempts to enter via the front door, he finds that the doorknob is attached to a string, which, unbeknownst to him, is attached to a staple gun placed on the other side of the door that ends up firing a staple into his rear, groin, and nose.
- Harry attempts to reach the back door by grabbing the bottom rung of a fire escape, which Kevin has covered in Monster Sap Soap, causing him to fall to the ground.
- After removing the staples from his body, Marv kicks the front door open, but he fails to notice the large hole in the floor, resulting in him falling into the basement.
- After finally reaching the back door, Harry opens it, only to have a bag of tools dumped onto his head.
- After getting up from his fall, Marv steps into a puddle of Monster Sap Soap, causing him to fall on his back and slide into a large shelf of open paint cans that falls onto him, covering him in paint. He frees and attempts to clean himself with a nearby sink, but Kevin has attached it to an arc welder, electrocuting him and making him briefly appear as a skeleton.
- As Harry enters the bathroom, he pulls a light switch that is attached to a blowtorch, once again setting his head on fire, which he puts out in the toilet that has been filled with kerosene, causing an explosion in the bathroom and melting his hat once again.
- After recovering from the electrocution, Marv finds a rope that looks like a way out of the basement, but as he attempts to climb it, a large bag of cement that is attached to the rope falls and hits him in the head.
- After finally managing to climb out of the basement, Marv alerts Harry of Kevin's presence, prompting the latter to chase Kevin up a sawed ladder, which gives way as he does so, causing him to fall face-first to the ground.
- After rejoining, they nearly pursue Kevin upstairs, but due to Harry remembering the incident with the paint cans in the first film, they stand by to avoid being hit, but as they attempt to pursue Kevin once the paint cans have been released, he sends down a large, heavy pipe that hits them both in the face, knocking them down into the basement before Kevin cuts the ropes that are attached to the pipe, causing them to be hit by it again from an even greater height.
- Upon finally reaching the second floor, they find a door leading to the steps adjacent to the third floor, but when Harry pulls the doorknob, a string that is attached to it pulls down a tool chest that breaks the door off of its hinges and smashes them up against the wall.
- Upon finally making it to the townhouse's roof, they find that Kevin has climbed down a rope and attempt to do the same, but as they do so, Kevin lights it on fire, causing them to fall three stories to the ground and get covered in varnish.
Kevin calls the police on a nearby pay phone before attempting to lure Harry and Marv into Central Park, but he slips on some ice, allowing the bandits to recapture him. Taking the chance to settle their score with Kevin, they bring him into Central Park, where Harry pulls out his gun to shoot Kevin. However, Kevin's new friend, the Pigeon Lady, arrives and distracts them long enough for Kevin to escape. Harry attempts to shoot her instead, but the varnish has jammed his gun. The Pigeon Lady pelts Harry and Marv with birdseed, attracting a large flock of pigeons that swarms the duo. The distraction allows the police to arrive and arrest Harry and Marv, and the bandits are soo sent back to prison.
The police then return the stolen money to the store and inform Mr. Duncan of what has happened, with the latter telling them that the money must be sent to the children's hospital, to which the police promise to have it sent immediately. Mr. Duncan gladly accepts Kevin's apology note that is tied to the brick that he used to break the store's window, and as a reward for foiling the robbery, he has a truckload of presents delivered to Kevin and his reunited family at the Plaza Hotel on Christmas morning. Just like before, Kevin remains silent about his encounter with Harry and Marv.
Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House[]
Marv as he appears in the fourth film.
Marv returns in the fourth film, this time joined by his mother, Molly, and wife, Vera. They plan to kidnap the prince of a visiting royal family and hold him for ransom. At one point, Marv explains that he cut ties with Harry due to the latter's plans always landing them in jail, implying that they separated on bad terms.
However, Kevin ends up crossing paths with Marv again as his father, who is about to divorce his wife and Kevin's mother, Kate, is dating a rich woman named Natalie, whom the royal family are due to visit. Eventually, Marv is defeated once again, and he, his wife, and mother are rearrested and sent back to prison.
Other Media[]
On December 24, 2015, Daniel Stern posted a video on his Facebook account and YouTube channel that featured him unofficially reprising his role as a much older Marv, who has become terrified after discovering that an adult Kevin has been attacking anyone who he thinks is a home invader, and so he attempts to contact Harry to come find him. At the end of the video, the screen cuts to black as Marv lets out a blood-curdling scream, indicating that Kevin has tracked him down. This video is a response to the first episode of the web series :DRYVRS, which featured Macaulay Culkin reprising his role as an adult Kevin.
Family Guy does a cutaway making fun of Home Alone that uses a duo of burglars breaking into Kevin's house more skillfully.
In the SML episode "Home Alone," Junior is forced to defend his home from a trio burglars, which consists of Brooklyn T. Guy, Simmons, and another burglar.
Quotes[]
| “ | We'd better get out of here before somebody sees us. | „ |
| ~ Harry falling for one of Kevin's tricks. |
Production[]
- Director Chris Columbus' biggest fear as a kid was burglars, which was possibly an inspiration for the film.
- Michael Richards, Jeremy Irons, Tim Robbins and Christopher Lloyd were all considered for the role of Marv, but they were all too busy with other projects and scheduling conflicts at the time.
- Daniel Stern and John Heard, the actor who played Kevin's father, Peter, appeared together in C.H.U.D..
- Joe Pesci and Catherine O'Hara, the actress who played Kevin's mother, Kate, appeared in Betsy's Wedding, which also featured Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, who were frequently directed by John Hughes.
- On The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Daniel Stern said that he wished that Jack Lemmon would have played Harry, stating that he always wanted to work with Lemmon and did not have much chemistry with Pesci.
- Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern each appeared in films inspired by the life of mobster Henry Hill in 1990, the same year as the release of Home Alone. Stern appeared in My Blue Heaven, which was inspired by Hill's life in witness protection, while Pesci starred in Goodfellas, a more direct adaptation of Hill's life.
- Home Alone was the second film in which Joe Pesci played a plumber, with the first being in the 1983 film Easy Money.
- The broken Christmas ornaments that Marv steps on in the first film were actually candy. For the scenes that take place outdoors after Marv loses his footwear on the tar-covered basement steps, Daniel Stern wore rubber feat..
- In the first film, Daniel Stern improvised Marv's lines, "Why the hell are you dressed like a chicken?" and "Maybe he committed suicide."
- Daniel Stern dropped out of playing Marv after being told by Chris Columbus before shooting began that the production schedule had been extended from six weeks to eight and that he would not be paid for the additional two weeks. Stern was subsequently replaced by Daniel Roebuck, but after two days of rehearsing, Columbus felt that Roebuck lacked chemistry with Joe Pesci and brought Stern back. Roebuck was initially upset at being fired, but later considered the experience to be a "little blip of unimportance".
- During shooting of the first film, Joe Pesci, who is known for playing short-tempered characters, forgot he was in a family-friendly film during Harry's tantrums. As a result, he was advised by director Chris Columbus to say "fridge" instead of "f***". Ironically, Marv whispers out "s***" when his shoe falls through the McCallister's dog door.
- The first film is one of two in which Joe Pesci and John Candy, the actor who played Gus Polinski, consecutively appeared (in year terms) with John Williams as the composer, with the other being JFK.
- Daniel Stern has revealed that a pigeon flew into his mouth during shooting of the scene in the second film where the pigeons attack Harry and Marv and stated that "the taste was revolting".
- Macaulay Culkin, the actor who played Kevin, and Joe Pesci were somewhat enemies in real life. During filming of the scene in the first film where Harry prepares to bite Kevin's fingers off, Pesci accidentally bit Culkin after getting too serious with his role, leaving Culkin with a permanent scar. Culkin angrily berated Pesci, saying, "I don't care how many OSCARS you have, or whatever, don't go biting a nine-year-old! What the heck's wrong with you!?!".[1] It is also said that Pesci intentionally avoided Culkin on set in order to make him genuinely frightened by the sight of him. Their next altercation occurred on the set of the second film when Culkin jokingly asked Pesci why he never smiled, to which Pesci told him to "shut up". The feud between Culkin and Pesci has inspired the first "The Joe Pesci Show" skit on Saturday Night Live, where Jim Breuer portrayed Pesci; the skit ended with Pesci hitting Culkin on the head with a paint can, which was a reference to the first film, and saying that he laughed when Culkin died in My Girl. However, Culkin and Pesci did also hold some respect for each other, as Pesci, like everyone else, on-set was amazed with how mature and professional Culkin was, even stating, "Mac is not like a nine-year-old. He's an old man already."
- Daniel Stern appeared in the 1995 film Bushwhacked, which was originally going to be a spinoff of Home Alone in which Marv was to reform, only to get set up for a crime that he did not commit.
- Daniel Stern was approached to reprise his role as Marv in the fourth film, but he declined it after reading the original script, calling it "an insult" and "total garbage" to the first two films.
Trivia[]
- The looks for Harry and Marv were based on Fagin, the Jewish thief Oliver Twist.
- Harry and Marv's van is a 1986 Dodge Ram.
- In the fourth film, Marv looks more like a taller version of Harry.
- Harry wears a wedding ring throughout the first film. His possible wife is never mentioned, so it is likely that he is either divorced or not married at all. Ironically, the Harry-like depiction of Marv would be the one who is married in the fourth film.
- The van that Harry and Marv drive has "Oh-Kay Plumbing" on the side of it. This could be a reference to Pesci's character Leo Getz from the Lethal Weapons films, with his iconic saying "Okay, Okay, Okay, Okay".
- The plumbing van that Harry and Marv drive has a slogan that says "Your flood control experts." This is ironic, as Marv wants them to collectively call him and Harry the "Wet Bandits" by flooding the houses that they rob.
- It is shown in the second movie that Marv is Jewish. This is implied at first when he says to Kevin "Americans don't fly to the Promised Land". Later, he declared "Happy Hanukkah, Marv!" to himself as he robbed Duncan's Toy Chest, confirming that he is indeed Jewish. His actor Daniel Stern is Jewish in real life.
- The McCallister doorknob burn on Harry's hand at the beginning of the house raid is a homage to the main poster used to advertise M (1931).
- Funko released Pop! toys of Kevin, Harry, and Marv shortly after the fourth film was released.
- In the scene where Harry is hit on the stairs and gets hit by the paint can, he lands on Marv who later remarks "You're missing some teeth!". If one were to listen closely, Harry's gold tooth can be heard bouncing off the floor after he lands face down on top of Marv.
- In the scene where Kevin shoots Marv in the forehead with Buzz's air rifle, the caps weren't real. Instead, they were hand-painted and later animated in post-production.
- The only screen time Harry has been with Kevin's family in the first movie and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is at the beginning of the first film, when he is at the McCallister house impersonating a police officer. Marv, on the other hand, does not have any screen time with Kevin's family in either movie, however Marv does briefly appear alongside Peter, Kate, Buzz, and Megan in Home Alone 4 where Kevin’s parents and siblings arrived in the mansion and two bandits attempt to escape when they arrived only for Buzz and Megan to trip them down and defeat them. Thus Harry and Marv now be alongside the Kevin’s Family (fewer for Marv's case).
- A popular theory is that in an original screenplay for Home Alone, Harry and Marv were the secondary antagonists, having been hired by Kevin's cheapskate uncle Frank (played by Gerry Bamman in the film), who was jealous of his brother Peter's wealth, to rob Peter's and the other houses in the neighborhood and get Kevin. This rumor has not been confirmed. Additionally, the original screenplay ended with the duo in prison watching Angels with Filthy Souls (the gangster movie Kevin watched and later used to trick a pizza delivery boy and Marv earlier in the film) with their fellow inmates.
- In a deleted scene from Home Alone, Harry declared that his motivation for robbing houses on Christmas was due to his hatred of the commercialization of the holiday. This scene was deleted as it would have made him and Marv too sympathetic and undeserving of the injuries inflicted upon them after falling into Kevin's traps.
- Harry is the more violent and vigilant one of the two, whereas Marv's the more cowardly, slightly more compassionate and stupider one.
- The van that Marv and Vera drove in the fourth film is similar to that of the one that he and Harry drove in the first film.
- Both of them can be described as superhuman in reality as most of Kevin's traps can deal damages that are great enough to paralyze them in one shot and even outright kill them, especially in Home Alone 2, where Harry is flung into the air and lands on a car roof with enough force to make it to collapse under him, and Marv has several bricks dropped on his head from a three story building.
- According to the Internet Movie Firearm Database, Harry carried what appeared to be a Smith & Wesson Model 10 Revolver when he was in his cop disguise.[2] In Home Alone 2, Harry appears to use a Colt Police Positive when he attempts to shoot Kevin.
- According to real doctors, the injuries that Harry and Marv sustain would be worse in real life to the point that they would have been crippled if not dead.
- In the Screen Junkies video, Honest Action - Home Alone, it was determined that the injuries sustained in Home Alone and Home Alone 2 would kill Harry eight times over and kill Marv thirteen times over. Harry was the first of the duo to die, his slipping on the frozen front steps the second time potentially resulting in a broken neck.
- In the video game Hitman there is a reference to Harry and Marv in Agent 47's targets in the Christmas edition of the Paris level: Harry "Smokey" Bagnoto and Marv "Slick" Gonif.
- The newspaper at the beginning of the second film is the only time is the only time that their full names (Harry Lyme and Marv Murchins) are stated.
- There are two hints that Harry is Christian and Marv is Jewish.
- In the first film, Harry refuses to enter a Catholic church.
- In the second film, Marv tells Kevin about the Promised Land.
- While robbing Duncan's Toy Chest in the second film, Harry says to himself, "Merry Christmas, Harry," while Marv tells himself, "Happy Hanukkah, Marv."
References[]
External Links[]
- Harry on the Home Alone Wiki
- Marv on the Home Alone Wiki
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 Villains
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